Guajiro Natural

Polo Montanez | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 25, 2000)
• Label: Lusafrica France
• ASIN: B00004T1HY
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #311,825 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Amanece el Nuevo Año

2. Guajiro Natural

3. Quien Será

4. Donde Estara

5. Si Fuera Mia

6. Un Montón de Estrellas

7. Un Bolero

8. Mi Mejor Amiga

9. Canten

10. Si Se Enamora de Mi

11. Barca a la Deriva

12. Como Será Mañana

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

With a raspy but warmly appealing voice, Polo Montañez mines the same roots guajira tradition as Buena Vista Social Club star Eliades Ochoa. But while Montañez's feet are planted in the countryside of West Cuba, his music reaches far beyond, from the jazzy flute that winds around the vocal on "Amenece el Nuevo Ano" to the almost-pop changes of "Un Monton de Estrellas" to "Si Fueras Mia" and its emotive violin accompaniment. For a debut, this is remarkably assured, and the former coal man has the kind of charisma that could easily translate into stardom. Whether on the son of "Como Sera Manana" or when letting his voice lead horns on the title track, Montañez sounds relaxed and simply oozes melody throughout the disc, although he seems happiest in a relatively stripped-down setting, such as on "Canten." Singers this good come along rarely; catch him before he's famous. --Chris Nickson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lucero Eterno, September 8, 2005

By 

Hector Reyes-erazo - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Guajiro Natural (Audio CD)

I first came across the name Polo Montañéz (nèe Fernándo Borrego) while driving in San Francisco on a typically cloudless day with my fiancé and her sister who was visiting from Cuba. Yes, by way of visa and Party consent Cubans are allowed to visit relatives in the US. No doubt it requires a clean dossier. Anyways, as we cruised down the busy boulevard Geary Street, she persisted on us listening to the music of this fallen but charismatic guajiro, whose meteoric rise in the music charts was cut short by his tragic death in 2002 while returning by car from La Habana with his family to his hometown near Pinar del Rio. Yes, yes, all this in a single breath. This modest country peasant had just begun to fan out of his rural hamlet to display his remarkable gifts as a prolific décimista when tragedy struck.

He first took up guitarra, tumbadora and maraca as a young boy alongside his father, going from one casa de campo to another like itinerant troubadours, making merriment with punto guajiro in the Cuban countryside.

After many years of back breaking toil on the family farm, Polo began to whet his craft as artist and performer. He played for friends and family at improvised parties or guateques in neighboring bateys and later at more formal venues including local hotels, plazas and stadiums where he would display his musical energy and talent to enthusiastic audiences. With over 70 songs to his name, this amiable poet left us with an unforgettable musical legacy. Perhaps his greatest gift to the Cuban songbook was his "Guajiro Natural", an affirmation of the Cuban guajiro and his unassailable wit. Here was the simple and rustic trovador who in a brief moment of Cuban history captured in the amber of the Cuban spirit the distinct character of its guajiro. I believe he single handedly lifted the chins of his fellow guajiros and made them the unassuming proud heroes of the Cuban countryside. No longer need a guajiro feel inept or socially inferior to city compatriots.

Polo Montañéz conveys in his rich lyric the ethos and pathos of a nation characterized by years of indubitable economic, social and political paradoxes. Despite an arguably strained and nearly insuperable existence under a pointless economic embargo, a modest compesino can scale high above what can be viewed as subjective ruination and pour out his heart and soul into some of the most beautiful music ever to come from Cuba's countryside ("el campo" y "las montañas"). A man of profound humanity and acute awareness he searched both deep in his soul as well as drew from the rich lexicon of the natural guajiro including rural idioms, provincialisms, and naturalisms to express love, longing, hope and the trials and tribulations of life. His songs are pregnant with splendid symbolism and metaphor and joyously celebrate peasant life.

The curious appeal of Polo's music is that it is devoid of rhetoric; the language is natural, and without affectation. His music has a way of evoking a forlorn nostalgia in many who can relate to his symbolism and metaphors and easily connect to the rich expressions and experiences he so beautifully sings. Just close your eyes and quietly listen to "Un Montón de Estrellas" or Si Fuera Mia" and you'll see and hear what I mean.

While Polo Montañéz was steeped in punto guajiro and the rural traditions of improvised décimas, he also turned to various styles of Cuban music, but most notably, Cuban son. By way of dialectic of musical rhythms and instrumentation, Polo essentially created his own sound on which to set his remarkable lyricism. You will just as well dance as would listen to this wonderful music.

Polo Montañéz was a man of profound sentiments as well as deeply grounded in his rural roots. He was gifted and patient enough to give voice to his songs when the time was right. He never had any formal musical training. His muse was innate and incorruptible. In a brief life and even less as a celebrated artist, he was able to leave his mark in the ceaseless wake of Cuban and Latin American music. In the pantheon of Cuba's greatest poets he is an original and a rightful heir.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cuban Campesino Gives a Tour de Force in World Music Genre, July 14, 2000

By 

Matthew Dubuque "MatthewDubuque" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guajiro Natural (Audio CD)

What happens when a campesino from the hills of Oriente Cuba, birthplace of such Cuban musical legends as Miguel Matamoros, Nico Saquito, Guillermo Portabales, Compay Segundo and Eliades Ochoa incorporates world music motifs into his authentic Cuban roots music?

It's a risky proposition to be sure. Eliades Ochoa's Sublime Illusion shows some of the risks attendant with combining son montunos from Oriente with other influences. That particular CD is harmed somewhat with his occasional incorporation of hackneyed mariachi trumpet lines designed to increase record sales in Mexico City.

But this release by Polo Montanez is something different, something very special.

First of all, his voice and the accompanying harmonies are surprisingly reminiscent of the early recordings of Ruben Blades(!). And there is some marvelous Peruvian flute work on this CD, readily distinguishable from the traditional flute lines used in Cuban charangas.

And some pretty slick authentic African-influenced chants, with roots running deeper than the slightly overrated Cesaria Evoria.

Polo writes all his own tunes, and his wizardry on the Cuban tres helps to keep this music solidly in the Cuban roots camp.

But his beautiful lyrics and courageous importation of other cultures makes this CD a must have for the Ochoa and Portabales fanatics among us.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding voice and ensemble, May 21, 2001

By 

John P. Rickert - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Guajiro Natural (Audio CD)

This is the second time I've attempted to write a review for this remarkable disk. This is not, first of all, a disk of typical guajiro music. For that I would recommend Los Guaracheros de Oriente first and foremost. I prefer not to call this music "fusion", because that word tends to suggest an amalgamation that is not all that successful, either because the elements are assembled but not really conjoined, or because the elements are basically not compatible. Better, perhaps, to speak of a "spirit" here: a hauntingly beautiful Andean influence in the first song, joyful African call-and-response and harmonies in others. I don't really know how else to describe it, but there is a divine calm in this music even with its great energy. The ensemble is exceptional. Not simply a gathering of talented soloists -- a true conjunto of first-class musicians. The bass player, in particular, knows his instrument and his function well, and Montañez has a voice of extraordinary quality. If you have enjoyed the resurgence of Cuban music due to Buena Vista Social Club but have perhaps become a little jaded of the overly-exposed and overly- commercialized aspects, I would invite you to drink of this fresh, clear, and vital stream.